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Deutsche Bank of Germany on Friday said it erroneously transfered €28bn ($34 billion) to a customer in a routine operation, more than the entire bank is worth.
The error happened on March 16 when Deutsche Bank carried out a transfer to an account at Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex clearing house, a spokesman told AFP.
The operation was meant to involve a far smaller sum, which the bank has not revealed.
Accounting errors happen most days, but the sum involved in this case is highly unusual and even exceeds Deutsche’s market capitalisation of 24 billion euros.
The incident, which came shortly before John Cryan was ousted as chief executive, was quickly fixed and no harm was done, the institution said.
It however raises questions as to the efficacy of the bank’s risk management and control systems especially at a time where there is some leadership instability rocking the bank.
The bank on Wednesday announced the departure of its IT and infrastructure chief Kim Hammonds, who had reportedly called the bank the “most dysfunctional company” that she had worked for.